Word Live: Walking In Blessing
We have reflected on Joseph’s life as a journey. If you think of your own life in the same way, what do you need from God for this stage?
Bible passage
Psalm 121
A song of ascents.
1 I lift up my eyes to the mountains –
where does my help come from?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
3 He will not let your foot slip –
he who watches over you will not slumber;
4 indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The Lord watches over you –
the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
6 the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.
7 The Lord will keep you from all harm –
he will watch over your life;
8 the Lord will watch over your coming and going
both now and for evermore.
Holy Bible, New International Version® Anglicized, NIV® Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Explore
This is a psalm of blessing with two voices. In verses 1,2 an individual prepares for a journey and looks for a blessing, which is spoken by a second voice in the rest of the psalm, possibly a priest at the Temple.
As the traveller looks up, he sees ‘the mountains’. These may be literal or may represent the threats and challenges that lie ahead. But beyond them he sees the One who made the hills, who made heaven and earth, so he looks up for blessing with hunger and eagerness.
The blessing covers day and night, the whole of time and the whole range of the journey. Whereas Psalm 139 acknowledges that no part of our lives is hidden from God, this psalm affirms his active involvement in every stage with the purpose of blessing us.
Blessing does not mean ease. There are challenges and difficulties along the way, but even in these there is blessing. Jesus’ disciples came to see that life with Jesus did not mean an absence of storms, but a safe conclusion to the journey (Mark 4:35–41).
Author
Steve Silvester
Respond
As you look up, do you see problems or the One who is bigger? Use this psalm to ask for the blessing you need (vs 1,2), and to speak God’s blessing over others (vs 3–8).
Deeper Bible study
‘The eyes of the Lord are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good.’1
This much-loved psalm begins with a conundrum. In saying he lifts his eyes to the mountains, the psalmist may mean one of two very different things. En route to Jerusalem, pilgrims pass mountains where non-Israelites worship their idols. Is he saying that by contrast to them his faith is not in mountain idols but in the living God? Or, since his destination is Mount Zion, are the mountains symbolic of the ageless, rock-solid God who created them? Maybe, as one of my former theology lecturers impishly used to advise, you don’t have to choose between them. Both are true. Have a double blessing.
What follows is crystal clear. God is utterly reliable in exercising care over us. He never shuts his eyes for a moment and never takes a vacation. Day and night, coming and going, in little things and big, now and for ever he proves the best security there is, saving us from harm. If harm comes, as it did to Joseph, it does so for his providential purposes and not because he’s failed us. If you’ve ever been involved in a royal occasion, you’ll have been intensely watched over from on high by British security. It’s reassuring, but nothing compared with our security in God.
Many people have trouble sleeping because they don’t switch off their electronic gadgets early enough. From early morning to well beyond bedtime, at weekends and on holiday, the electronic screen unhealthily captivates our attention, causing problems. We need to switch off! But God isn’t like us. One great difference, in spite of his taking a sabbath at the creation, is that his energy never runs out and his watchfulness never tires. At any time, in every circumstance and in the remotest place, he is watching over us. That’s the best protective security of all.
God sees everything you do. Is this something you welcome or something you fear? If you fear it, why? What can you do to change this?
Author
Derek Tidball
